Fight for the burning shrine
by Major-de-speed
Summary: When the crucible comes under attack from Vex, Six guardians find unlikely allies with each other. Will they have each other's back or will the idea of winning get to their heads?


Fight for the burning shrine

"This your last match guys? You said Ikora had something she wanted you to do." A voice came over the coms. "Yeah, Sorry Major." Her warlock teammate stated. They did have an important role in the tower and it was lucky she could get them out at all. Switching off her com link she sighed. She was sat in the cockpit of her trusty star ship. It was cosy, but it suited long-distance travel - and the hunter - Just fine.

"Ghost, can you pull up the next roster of guardians. I want to see what we are up against." The hunter removed her helmet, revealing the Exo's green eyes. Placing it on a stand to her right she leant back in her chair. Her ghost pulled up three guardians. A fireteam of two titans and a hunter. "This is gonna' be fun." One at a time she pulled up information about each one, the hunter was wielding a Scout rifle and a shotgun. The titans were both wielding pulse rifles, One with a shotgun and one, much to the hunter's interest, A sniper rifle. "Oh, you are on titan. Ghost, for this match I want 'No land' and one of my side arms. Doesn't matter which one. Me and that titian are going to be in a show down for most of this match." She paused, looking at the list of guardians again, "The hunter's the fireteam leader, she stays down, they have less call outs." She smiled to herself, "That reminds me, where are we headed for this match before I send us into warp."

"It's one of your favourite's guardian. The burning shrine, Mercury." The ghost said. Accessing a small navigation computer to the left of the guardian. Putting in the coordinates while stating "I've already let the others know. They'll follow you into warp when you're ready." The guardian smiled. Punching in final preparations she opened a com channel with her fireteam. "Okay. Let's go and win us a final match team." She placed her hand on the warp drive activation switch. "Let's do this." Flinging the switch forward she smiled as the light of the sky became stretched, her destination at the end of a tunnel of light. Her eye glanced over to her helmet as she grabbed it with both hands. Putting it on she then grabbed her hood and pulled it over the top. She was ready for the fight ahead.

Warp eventually decelerated revealing the fiery vex transformed world of mercury. "Take us in ghost. I'm going to suit up." A sniper rifle appeared in the hunter's hands as they went down to the planet's surface. The golden age iron sight was no high-tech scope. But it suited the hunter just fine. The vanguard often finds it hard to find guardians who could the bolt action sniper correctly, the hunter was an exception, she handles the gun well according to her mentor, much to the grief of guardians she fought against. Placing the rifle against her back she grabbed the sidearm from the side counter and placed it onto her belt. Just in time for the ghost to land. The burning shrine came into view, the sun in the background on the lower end of the map as her ship landed. "Okay ghost. Transmat to Bravo spawn, match starts in 30 seconds." The hunter's ghost nodded its chassis. Before disappearing, soon after the hunter also dematerialised. Reappearing in the Bravo teams spawn.

"Skirmish." Shaxx's voice rand threw the guardians com's, the female warlock on her team held the Bravo flag. "Bravo team." Shaxx's voice came again. Announcing for the feed. The hunter slung her sniper across her shoulder while her fellow warlock held a scout rifle towards the floor. All three of them ready to go. A timer appeared on the right-hand side of the hunter's display. It was counting down from five. The hunter was prepared for a fight like any day. Four. This fight would be no different. Three. A plan of attack began to form in her head. Two. Determination rushed threw her mind. Mapping routes in her head. One.

A small buzzer sounded signalling the start of the match to the guardians. Shaxx's voice came through the com's one more time. "Work together and you might survive." The two warlocks ran across the back wall of the map away from the hunter. Both unable to do anything from a long distance. The hunter moved down the map towards the large central room. The huge disc's autonomously rotating in opposite directions. The hunter set herself up at the back. Slowly watching the disc move as she prepared her rifle. She knew the titan would on the lane soon enough. Her head rested on the rifle her eye peered through the iron sight towards the other end of the map. The giant disc on her side had moved to reveal the central room. She saw her opportunity when the other disc moved away to reveal a hunter running across the opposing room. Her eye instantly locked on as she traced after the hunter at lightning speed before pulling the trigger. The loud shot echoed throughout the map as the bullet flew through the two rooms before hitting her target in the head. Killing her, instantly. "First blood goes to you guardian" Shaxx's voice rang again. The hunter smiled to herself as she prepped the gun again by pulling back the bolt. Pushing it forward soon after. Prepared for another to come into her sight line. Just like that they did. The titan with the sniper rifle came from around the corner and pulled it up. The hunter reacted with immense speed and shot him before he could shoot back.

The hunter then heard movement from outside, heavy boots clattered the ground, she pulled out her sidearm, and slowly approached the exit. Her suspicions were right. Clearly this titan had been told to come and deal with the hunter by that fireteam leader. "Guys" she began "The hunter is their fireteam leader. Any reports must go through her. Keep her down and they'll crumble." Mixed responses came back to her but she took it as acknowledgement. The hunter moved forwards towards the burning sands outside the map. She saw the titan moving towards her. She was going to have to fight him to get away. The footsteps got closer until they were just to her left. She jumped out at the titan hoping to throw him off guard. First going over his head she put a few shots from her sidearm into his back while she was jumping over him. He quickly swung himself around as she performed this and managed to get a shotgun shot to her stomach. Breaking her shields instantly. She was bound to get killed if she didn't dodge the titans next attack. Luckily the titan went for a punch, leaving her with a slither of health. She retreated inside the building. But to her surprise she found herself respawning soon after. She sighed "I got sniped. Didn't I?" The hunter stated. She glanced over to the kill feed which was being shown. She had indeed been sniped by the titan from earlier. She glanced at her radar, a red blip was coming up from where she had been previously. She could go for round two on that titan, but decided against it, save the embarrassment. She levelled her sidearm and decided to go around to the sniping titan, she could ambush him quite easily. She headed his way and found one of her warlock team members fighting the hunter using a hand cannon, she was easily getting out gunned as the hunter had a scout rifle. Seeing this she swooped in and slid past the hunter throwing her off. Finishing of the warlock the hunter turned to her counterpart. She levelled her scout rifle, ready to fire again but was shot in the back by the other warlock on Bravo team. She'd been pincered. "Prime, Now!" Was shouted, she was gunned down in an instant by the shotgun that went into her back. Dropping to the floor defeated momentarily before the body disappeared into ash.

"Good job prime. Needed that." The warlock nodded. Not saying a word, he reloaded his shotgun and walked in the other direction towards the special ammo crate nearby. The hunter moved down to the sniper lane again and found the titan not paying attention to his radar. She walked up to him and tapped him on the shoulder. "Oh hey." The titan turned his head towards the hunter and stepped back. He raised his fist and got a storm grip off on the hunter, lowering her health once again. She used blink strike back at him in response, staggering the titan. She then pulled out her sidearm and finished him off before he knew what was happening. The hunter sat in the sniper lane where the titan had died. She noticed something unfamiliar about the central beam going through the middle lane. She opened a com channel with her teammates, "Hey, guys, does something seem off too you. Like off-off."

"Yeah, I didn't want to say anything but I think something is reacting with the constructs here. No idea what though." A voice came in on com's, the warlock that had helped earlier came over to the hunter at this point. He looked at the beam transmitter and shook his head. "Yeah, we may have a problem. I'll let Shaxx know to end the match early." He moved away from her and accessed his ghost. "What do you mean you can't get a com signal?" Suddenly a loud inaudible screech spread across the map. The central beam reacted to this screech by turning to a bright shade of red. The two guardians looked at each other and pulled out a weapon. "Did I just hear Vex? Seriously?" A female voice sounded from the inside lane. She ran over to her teammates "I can't be dealing with Vex today. Ghost, pull up a map I want to see where they are coming from." The fireteam huddled around the ghost's map. "Looks like they are coming from outside. Wait, it looks like some are by the ships, we are going to be fighting our way out of this one."

The hunter raised a hand to her chin. "Ghost, I'm going to need Lord high fixer and…" She had a thought. "And patience and time." Her rose coloured ghost appeared from behind her. He looked at the other two guardians before giving his guardian the weapons she asked for. "Guardian, I'm picking up multiple hostiles headed in this direction, if it's the Vex, should I let the other team know, so they don't attack us on sight."

"That won't be necessary."

The three guardians turned around to find the opposing team of guardians standing behind them, "I'm no techy but the blue beam in the middle, shouldn't be red. Mal here saw you three huddled around a map and wanted to check it out." The titan with the sniper rifle nodded his head. The vex screech was heard again. This time much closer than the last one. "I'm Kay, you already know Mal and this is Alex." She pointed towards each of her teammates as she stated their names.

"I'm Major, this is Leana and Prime." She pointed to her teammates much like the opposing hunter did. "Personally, I would have saved introductions till later but that's fine. Now we've found…." Her voice drifted off as her gaze drifted to behind the hunter. "Look out!" She ran forward towards the hunter and pushed her out of the way before a shot hit her square in the chest. "Ahhh, that hurt. We've got Vex and a lot of them." The guardians nodded towards each other and split into three groups. The titans went outside, through the door to their left. The warlocks took the back route to the right and the two hunters, Remained in the central column. "Been a while since I've done this." The Exo hunter stated, pulling her sniper off her back.

"Done what. Exactly?" The other hunter stated, taking cover behind one of the two pillars. The red beam casting a ere glow on the two hunters. "Worked with another hunter. I've been solo for almost 3 years now. Don't ask." She leaned out from behind the pillar and quickly did a head count of the vex, slowly coming towards them. "I count twenty on the ground with more on the way. Hope you're ready for a fight."

The other hunter chuckled "Oh please, I was ready to fight you. But Vex will do instead." A laugh came from the hunter's mouth. "Funny. Now, let's deal with this lot. Ghost what's the status of Arc blade." Her ghost flew from her shoulder in front of the two hunters, scanning the other hunter as well, his robotic voice followed. "You're close. So are you umm, Kay was it. Your ghost tells me that you've almost got golden gun." Both hunters nodded in unison. "You got a plan then guardian?"

"In fact, I do." She pointed at the ground to indicate a point for a small map to her ghost. He created one of the central column "Ping up all known enemy locations ghost" The ghost responded to the hunter, little red dots appearing all over the small map that had been created.

"Okay then, I'll go in with Arc blade first, keep them occupied, you can use your gun to clean up any stragglers, save the super, I've got a feeling we'll need a heavy hitting super later. Do you have celestial? It would really help if you equipped that, you know. For emergency's." The other hunter pulled out her scout rifle and positioned herself lower down on the pillar. "For someone who's not worked in a team for so long. You've got some good callouts. Yes, I've got celestial, ghost can you equip that."

Both hunters looked at each other with a nod. The Arc energy danced within the hunter's fingers. She was ready. She crouched, her invisibility would kick in any second. Then she would strike. The hunter then heard a faint click and she looked at her hand. Or where the movement of her arm would indicate where her hand would be. The hunter ran out from behind the pillar and towards the large group of Vex in the central room. Arc energy flowed through the hunter as she reappeared in the middle of the group. Arc energy shot down her arm and into her fingertips as she formed a fist a knife made of pure Arc light formed from her fist outwards as the summoned the blade. She cut through her enemies with extreme swiftness. Like a dance from the heart of a storm each one fell quicker than the last. Until most of the main enemies were gone. When the last enemy fell she opened her hand once again and let the Arc light fade from her fingers. She turned back to where the other hunter was and returned to her. "What's the status of the others. The rooms filling up with Vex again. Or at least, that's what all the Vex clouds of doom are indicating to me."

"Your warlock's joined up with the titan's outside. We should probably do the same." The hunter nodded in agreement and followed the other outside. The titan's and warlock's were fighting outside when the hunter's approached them. "It's like an army out here!" One of the warlock's exclaimed, while taking cover to reload her hand cannon. "It'll take all day to deal with them all." The other warlock jumped over the same cover and joined her. "Oh well, when we don't show Ikora will go looking for us. She'll get Shaxx to send someone to investigate. Which will be sooner than I had originally thought."

"Why do you say that Prime?" The question was asked by his fellow warlock. She looked over to him while the other guardian's fought around them. "Because we were due back at the tower half an hour ago." You couldn't see the warlock's eyes because of her helmet but given by how she leaned back, it was easy to tell that she was surprised. "Will you two _stop_ talking and help?!" A very angry sounding hunter exclaimed as she was wrestling with a vex minotaur. Throwing it off her she stabbed her knife right in the stomach of the minotaur making it crumble to the floor. Dead. She let out a sound of frustration as she ran back to take cover nearby. "Ready Alex?!" The hunter peered over her cover to see the two titan's both with clasped fists. "Let's do this."

Both titan's placed their guns back into their holster's. Equipped with only their fists they ran towards the increasing crowd of Vex, both embracing the Arc energy stored within them they both leaped into the air and became a ball of Arc light which hurtled back towards the ground at tremendous speeds. Crashing into crowds of Vex which were obliterated as soon as their fists hit the ground. Both titan's then stood up and looked around at the mechanical corpses. "Killed enough for you warlock." This time it was Leana's turn to stand up. She looked around at the corpses and little orbs of concentrated light lay among them. "Perfect. Thank you." She ran towards the orbs of light and absorbed them into her very being. Enhancing her void light. "That'll be enough for the next wave." The blade dancer also ran out to grab any remaining orbs of light, as she found an Arc blade was always useful, ducking back into cover, she looked over to her warlock friend who was summoning a small orb of void light in her hand. "Does that mean it's time for big explosion fun time Leana?"

The other guardian's turned to face the hunter. "I'm sorry, what?" One of the titan's exclaimed, confused. The warlock sighed. "Sorry, that's Major's way of saying Nova bomb. Yes Major, it is big explosion fun time." The crackling noise of another Vex group made the hunters ears perk up. "Leana, that's your que." The warlock smiled under her helmet, she jumped up into the air, all Vex eyes on her and she clasped her hands together. Expanding them, a ball of pure void energy began to materialise from the centre. It became so large the warlock moved the energy into her right hand and directed the energy towards the huge crowd. When it landed a vortex of void energy formed at the crash site. Pulling all the constructs around it into its spiralling centre. The warlock then summoned a grenade and threw it into the centre of the vortex. Killing all the trapped inhabitants. The warlock landed with grace, summoning orbs of light around her on the landing. "Explode-y enough for you Major?" The hunter rapidly nodded her head.

"It's quieting down, thank the nine." The other warlock stated, the whole time he had been trying to summon solar light. He was new to the solar subclass for the warlocks, the Sunsinger was a difficult way of light mastery, even for the most advanced warlocks. Simply because it required extreme concentration rather than summoning capability's. "Don't be so sure about that Prime. Something doesn't feel right about how they retreated. I feel like that super you saved earlier Kay might now come in handy." As if the hunter knew it was coming a larger shriek than all the others sounded from below them on the large plain of sand. A large Vex summoning cloud appeared just ahead of them. Creating a large Vex construct that was three stories high. "It's a giant minotaur! Called it! Kay, you better still have that golden gun ready." Her acquaintance nodded her head.

"You bet, get it out in the open I'm gonna' need a clear shot at this thing." The other guardians looked at the hunter then at each other. One by one they nodded their heads. "Better get on with it then, shouldn't we." One of the titans stated before standing up. "You are coming Alex?" The other titan stood up. "Let's do this Mal, you'll get your opening Kay, just be ready." The two titans ran from cover, drawing the minotaur's fire as they pulled it toward the other guardian's. The hunter watched the minotaur as it moved towards her. Steadying her eye, she looked at the weak spot. She felt the solar light within her burn, it was at that moment she knew that it was time. She focused on the burning sensation in her hand she stretched her arm out and let solar light flow threw her body and down her arm. The light formed a flaming pistol in her hand. She steadied the gun and pointed it towards the minotaur she took a deep breath before aiming the gun. She waited for the right moment, the right spot. Then fired. A streak of pure solar light flew from her gun into the minotaur's weak spot. Crippling it. The minotaur reacted to this shot by falling to one knee before standing up again, clearly angry. The gun faded away from the hunter's hand leaving nothing behind. Before the hunter could raise her scout rifle the Sunsinger warlock walked out in front of the cover. "Don't, I've got this covered."

The warlock looked up at the minotaur he knew what it would do to him if he failed. "Okay prime, like you practiced." The warlock said to himself, rallying himself to try summoning his super. He took a deep breath and looked at his hand, a medium sized flame appeared there. He looked up, determination in his eyes, and focused on the light in his hand. As he did he felt his light surging inside of him, an untapped power was inside of him, waiting to be released. It just needed focus. He focused more, the surges of power becoming stronger and stronger the more willpower he put in. Every ounce of power he could muster was focused on his hand in that instant.

It worked.

He finally shot his arm into the air allowing the solar light to consume and create. A pair of ethereal solar wings appeared on his back as he embraced the light and the power that came with it. He jumped up into the air, the wings holding him in that place in the air, that time. He threw a barrage of solar light over the minotaur. It burned away at its metal skin, not before long it ended its reign in a pool of solar light. The minotaur collapsed to the ground in a heap before disappearing into dust. The warlock landed onto the ground, his wings disappearing leaving the warlock standing alone. Staring at the place where the minotaur had been. He fell back, landing on his back looking at the beauty of the sun. "Prime!" The other warlock ran to her friend. "Prime are you okay? That was amazing!"

"I never thought I'd be able to do it. I tried for so long I'd almost given up being able to ever summon the light like that. I had no idea it would happen like that, I'm just so surprised." The female warlock then hugged her male counterpart "I'm so proud of you Prime, and I'm sure Ikora will be too." He returned the hug. But soon let go so he could stand up. "Now I can do it, I'll be able to learn some of the more complex focusing techniques with you. To unlock the true potential of a Sunsinger. I'll be able to resurrect myself one day, once mastery is reached, but now I'm on my way. I owe you one Leana, you never gave up on me…" He looked over to the blade dancer who was clearly smiling at him threw her helmet while she was leaning against a rock. "And you. Major! You did always say about how I was a warlock and I'll get it eventually. It didn't seem very motivational at the time but I guess I've got to thank you too. So, thanks." The hunter shifted into a standing position and walked over to the warlock until she was face to face with him. She gave a small nod then bowed while saying "Your very welcome." The warlock tilted his head which made the hunter laugh. "Not a problem Prime, sometimes you just got to believe in the stuff I say. Most of it will save your life but sometimes it might just push you in the right direction." This comment made the warlock smile under his helmet. "Major, come in for a group hug. Come on!" The hunter headed over to the warlocks and hugged them. The other team, on the other hand had different ideas.

"Mal, you are not gonna' try and win this game now you hear. I don't care how close you are you're not gonna' shoot the hunter we just fought with and won a fight against the vex. That horrible. And even more, she's not that bad of a guardian. You're not gonna' shoot her." The hunter looked over at her fireteam member with disappointment in her voice. "But Kay, one kill is all we need to win. I can snipe us that kill right now!" He pointed over to the group of guardians "It's still a crucible match as Shaxx can't get in contact with any of us now." The hunter repeated the pointing gesture towards the group of celebrating guardians. "They helped us defeat the vex Mal, did you forget that?!" The titan looked at his fireteam leader and sighed. "Fine." He turned away and began to go towards his ship when he suddenly turned around and pulled out his sniper rifle. The hunter in the other group noticed this gesture as she had been keeping an eye on the group after she saw the pointing, she stared at the titan who had his sight zoomed in on her. The lens flare shining off his scope. The hunter stood motionless. Unsure of what to do, she believed it to be a final vex creature so she turned her head around to look behind her. When she saw no vex to speak off she turned her head back, while she did a single bullet came flying in her direction. Hitting her in the shoulder. She yelled out in pain and fell to one knee clenching the wound. The two warlocks rushed to her side pulling her to her feet. The warlocks letting go of her when she was on her feet. They could feel her anger and didn't want to be involved in this conversation.

The hunter moved towards the opposing group of guardians, starting with the titan that shot her. "ARE YOU CRAZY?! THIS IS HOW YOU THANK ME FOR HELPING YOU!" The hatred of the titan was apparent in her voice, Arc energy started to spark off her as she growled at the titan. She then turned back to look at her fireteam members who were shaking their heads, it was a sign to tone down the voice slightly. "You think it's such a good idea to shoot someone that's just helped you? Gives a whole new meaning to being stabbed in the back titan. I have half the right mind to kill you here, but I'm not the kind of hunter to execute." She leaned in towards the titan. "This time at least. And you!" She raised her head and looked back at the other hunter. "You could have taken control of the situation and made sure he didn't fire! And the vanguard wonder why I don't trust anyone but myself in the wild. It's because of hunters like you who can't control their fireteams! You could have prevented this from happening!" She walked up to the hunters face and grabbed her by the top of her armour. "You try that again and I will end you. You understand? Now teach your fireteam some dignity and respect." She forcefully threw the hunter away from her. Making her stagger. The blade dancer turned away from the group of guardians. Walking back to her fireteam. "The nerve of some hunters, calling him to kill me like that. It's just wrong. Let's get out of here, I don't want to see these guardians again."

One of the warlocks threw a hand over her shoulder, "Hey, you know that was a bit over board, I get that your mad but you didn't have to threaten to kill him like that." The hunter was still quite mad, "Hey, we'll get back to the tower and you can cool off with me okay. We'll do something, but I don't want you on your own for a bit. In case you break something."

The hunter gave a low growl, "I'm not gonna' break something." She turned her back to the warlock and the other fireteam. "Major, last time you were like this you snapped a shotgun in half. Help me out here Prime." The other warlock came over to the duo and looked at the hunter. She placed a hand on her chin and made the hunter look at her. "Major, please. I'd be mad but don't let this get at you like the last thing that made you this mad did. Cayde wouldn't be impressed that you've lashed at another guardian, even if it was their fault." The mention of her mentor lessened the anger in the hunter a little. "I don't want to see her, or that fireteam again. Okay. I don't care what happened. Just. I don't want to. Ghost we are going back to the tower. These warlocks have somewhere to be." The hunters ghost came out from behind her. He flew to the front of her face, he looked at her for a second before stating "I'm worried about this temper of yours. You almost fried your CPU with that surge of Arc energy. I'm going to have to check it out when we get back." The hunter looked angrily at the floor, she didn't say anything for a while. "Just take me home ghost." The hunter took a deep breath. "Take me home." The ghost looked towards the two warlocks who nodded. "Leana you take Major back to our fireteam quarters. I'll go and explain to Ikora what's happened and ask if we can do our archive duty later. I'm sure she'll understand." The hunter gave a small nod. "Ikora is nice like that. I'd like to stay with you guys. You have a spare room, right? In your fireteam quarters, as there's only four on you." Both warlocks nodded. Leana took the hunter under her arm and walked her back to her ship. "Let's go home hunter, you've had enough excitement for one day"

The end

 **Thanks for reading this I really appreciate the commitment to read something like this (Especially as I'm not that great at writing stuff of this nature so I needed a challenge) Let me know honestly what you think. This story is a part of a larger collaboration story with FivebyFive89, go and check her out If you want to learn more about some of these characters**


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